Ordnance discovery shuts down shipping on Elizabeth River Southern Branch

CHESAPEAKE—The Coast Guard on Friday morning shut down part of the southern branch of the Elizabeth River – a bustling stretch of waterway dotted with private-run energy and commodity terminals and full of tug boats, barges and personal watercrafts.

"Contractors working on the demolition of the old bridge span of the Gilmerton Bridge uncovered what is reported to be old, unexploded naval ordnance," said a Coast Guard news release, explaining the reason for the closure.

It wasn't immediately clear how long it would take for a Navy ordnance disposal unit to inspect the objects in question and open up the river – and nearby roads and train tracks that were also shut down – to traffic.

Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the stretch of river between Money Point to the Interstate 64 High Rise Bridge was closed at around 9 a.m., and he said that there was minimal waterway traffic impacted in the first three hours of the closure.

The shutdown does not affect state-run container terminals closer to the harbor, but it could potentially impact several major terminals, including a large grain terminal and a string of energy terminals, according to state maritime officials.

"People tend to think the busy part (of the river) stops at the (state) container terminals, but this is a very busy waterway," said Joe Harris a spokesman for the Virginia Port Authority.

J.J. "Jeff" Keever," VPA's deputy executive director said a lengthy closure could have "a huge impact on a lot of waterfront facilities located there. And that's the Intercoastal Waterway for north-south passage so it shuts down traffic for all the snowbirds who come south from the north in the Spring."

Weydert, however, said the impact so far was minimal.

"Nothing is really affected right now," he said.

An executive at local shipping agent T. Parker Host said the company is waiting for word from the Coast Guard on whether it'll be able to dock a ship at a dry-bulk terminal in the affected area early Saturday morning.

Bobby Scott, T. Parker Host's vice president for operations, said so far his company has not had to rearrange its schedule of ship movements on the portion of the river, "but I'm sure there would be barges affected."

The Navy and Chesapeake Police Department both were not able to immediately identify the ordnance.

* Note: the Coast Guard at 12:32 p.m. updated its news release to note that the bridge where the ordnance was discovered is the old span of the Gilmerton, which workers are tearing down.